[camexp]

"The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway."

It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the authors of the article.

However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the past.

[pcrh]

Bypass in context refers to the development of the motorway system in the UK. It was sometimes deemed necessary to demolish existing villages, or similar, so that a new motorway would follow a shorter path.

Specifically, the bypass would be a section of roadway that "bypassed" pre-existing routes.

[ErrantX]

I feel like the bypass reference is a very English joke, and therefore doesn't fully translate.

[relaxing]

Bypasses exist in the US. I can’t believe they are never created in other countries that build highways.

[ErrantX]

Fair. To explain my thinking; in the UK we have lot less land area, so generally bypasses are pretty controversial, and when Adams was writing the books a lot of them were being created and it was very much in the public consciousness as an issue of the time.

Of course; it could be the same over there :D So my theory could also be wrong.